Dniprovsky Historical Club

On February 21, 2016 the regular session of Dniprovsky Historical Club dedicated to the“Deportation as methods of genocide during World War II” was conducted. The session was held by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance employees: Dr. Serhiy Hromenko and Dr. Vasyl Pavlov.

The session started with dialogue, everybody had the opportunity to ask questions to the authors of the exhibition “Ukrainian World War II” opened on the same day at Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine”. Have there been any attempts of the Ukrainian academic community to criticize the exhibition? Will it be right to call Komsomol tours of the post-war years “hidden” deportation of Ukrainians? Can we consider the attitude of the Soviet military leadership to “Black Infantry” as hidden genocide? What were the difficulties during the preparation of the stand devoted to the deportation of Crimean Tatars? Did Bukovina Kuryn participate in the extermination of Jews? – These and other issues were the most interesting to the participants of the Historical club.

The session was continued with the story by Dr. Serhiy Hromenko on the Soviet policy of deportations during World War II. As highlighted by historian, at one time or another most of the European territories of the Soviet Union suffered deportations. The first deportation, carried out by the USSR, was held in 1924 when a small part of the Don Cossacks was relocated to Siberia. On the eve of World War II, in 1937, the Soviet Union started deportations of Koreans.

After the beginning of hostilities partial deportation of “undesirable” peoples took place. Above all these were Poles, Ukrainians, part of Jews from Western Ukraine, as well as residents of the Baltic countries and Bessarabia. In 1941 the Soviet Union started deportations of Germans. Gradually, after the counterattack of the Soviet troops, the Soviet Union switched to deportation of so called “condemned” peoples, namely the nations who were charged with collaboration. Kalmyks, who were deported from the Republic of Kalmykia, became the first in 1943. Then deportation affected the peoples of the Caucasus, including Chechens and Ingush people; in 1944 evictions from Crimea began.

The lecture aroused great interest of the audience that was proved by the active discussion at the end of the session.

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